Project Majestic Mix

A project spearheaded by Stephen Kennedy who wanted to honor Nobuo Uematsu through a series of remixes of various Final Fantasy music. The idea being that Stephen would collect music artists from around the land to assemble a single, unique masterpiece of a CD containing some of the best Final Fantasy remixes known to man. Naturally, such an ambitious project requires capital, so Stephen was eventually able to raise USD $10,000+ over the course of a year or two by promising donatees a special 'gold' edition of Project Majestic Mix featuring music that didn't make the final cut. You can visit the website of Project Majestic Mix at http://www.kfssstudios.com, where you can download some of the amazing-sounding MP3 samples of various remixed songs.

Unfortunately, my opinion of this project has dwindled over time. A year ago, I donated approximately CND $50.00 to the project in addition to purchasing a copy of the CD in advance from AnimeNation (Project Majestic Mix will be selling their CD through AnimeNation). The single largest problem that this project has had, in my opinion, is time. They've simply taken too long to get the product to market. No offense to Stephen Kennedy, as I'm sure he's a very great individual and has the best of intentions, but this project is taking far too long. They've been at it for two or three years now, and it seems that every time a new Final Fantasy comes out, they scrap some of their older remixes in favor for new ones from the newer games (thus starting the studio remixing process all over again). This isn't the best way to do things; they should simply release the CDs with older remixes and then release another CD later with the newer stuff.

Other than that, when this tribute to Nobuo Uematsu is released, it should be awesome to listen to.

Stephen Kennedy has finally gotten the album together, or so it seems...

Those who donated to the project previously are (as of this writing) being given until March 31, 2002 to buy the two-disc Gold Edition set for a meager fifteen dollars. Meanwhile, AnimeNation is taking pre-orders for the one-disc Silver Edition, with the same deadline. "A few months later," they claim, the Unlimited Edition CD will be available from major online retailers like amazon.com.

The project has acquired a few disturbingly commercial aspects, though:

• Each of the three editions will have one or more tracks not available on the other editions. Completists will thus have to pony up for all three of 'em, at a total cost of $70 or more.
• The record has its own Web site, distinct from that of the producer, at http://www.majesticmix.com/. Of course, these days, everyone has their own Web site, so that's not inherently bad, I guess.
• The "Gold Edition" was originally only intended to be for those who had donated long ago, but it's still possible to make a donation (through the aforementioned deadline) and pre-order the album, simultaneously. It's not nearly as cool if anyone can order one today, as it would be if you had to be supporting the project a couple years ago.

At least the album's finally getting made, though. It's progress, and I'll take it.

Remember to read the whole Project Majestic Mix node, as other entries contain valuable information of dubious utility.